A 27 year old's (mis)adventures in and out of Manila — from sights, sounds, and scenes — to living as a millennial in this crazy/beautiful city.

Ah Love You, Adele

No other period in my life would be more apt for #Hugot than 2011. Fresh out of college and new to the real world (AKA work), it was the time when the culmination of my childhood love story happened. I finally had the guts to ask out the guy I’ve been crushing on for five years (because fuck it, nothing’s gonna happen if I just wait) and the entire thing spiraled down to heartbreak.

During that time when I was picking up the pieces of my broken heart (LOL) only one artist fully captured all my emotions. It was Adele.

I don’t know where to begin, really. My thoughts and feelings were all over the place then. There was hurt, anger, sadness, happiness, longing, unease, excitement — basically a hodgepodge of 21-year-old drama, which coincidentally, was the same age when Adele wrote all the songs in her remarkable album, 21.

21 accompanied me through all of it, the dizzying and painful rollercoaster ride, and no other album has done that much for me. I can still remember singing One and Only endlessly in the shower, as I recalled moments from our date; how the entire song spelled excitement, giddiness, and hope for what is to happen.

There’s also Adele’s heartfelt rendition of a Bob Dylan original, Make You Feel My Love, which is a track you just want to dedicate and sing in front of that person you thought was THE one. First time I heard Adele sing it, I cried. It was just so beautiful.

And then there’s the dissolution of the dream, when you realize that everything was just BS and you got played. HAHAHA. It pricks, it stings, worse than when you had isopropyl alcohol poured all over your goddamn wound. When that moment comes, nothing is more perfect than blasting Turning Tables, singing to it, and meaning every single word.

So I won’t let you close enough to hurt me
No, I won’t rescue you to just desert me
I can’t give you the heart you think you gave me
It’s time to say goodbye to turning tables

After nights of crying, contemplating, crying, and crying again, you finally come to that point when you no longer care. It’s that liberating stage when you finally come to peace with the fact that your feelings got played on (and for quite a while at that) and you didn’t know better. But hey, we have to go through shit in order to grow up, right? And there’s nothing more satisfying than singing Rolling in the Deep to celebrate that.

I’m writing this piece because I’ve been on an Adele spree recently. Watching her live performances, new music videos, and taking in her latest songs brought me to a place that is familiar but is already quite far. Five years since that time, I’m just glad that that point in my life brought me to the talent of this Queen, who, as one YouTube user said, can make a song about bread and still make people cry.